.

However, no one came out to pick up the phone. Yeo Ryung didn’t give up but tried to call somewhere else. As if the person, whom she just reached out to, received her call right away this time, Yeo Ryung’s face brightened. She shouted, “Grandma! I’m in front of your house. Where are you? Why isn’t there anyone inside?”

Her face soon stiffened with dismay. Watching her looking even paler through the fogs, I also grimaced from having some bad feelings, which turned out to be correct.

After a while, Yeo Ryung finished her call and showed me a pale grin, then called me quietly, “Donnie.”

“Uh-huh.”

Still with a whitish hue on her face, she uttered, “What should we do? Granny and grandpa are… flying to Taiwan right now…”

‘AGAIN?’ Plopping down onto the ground, I thought, ‘Why does it have to be Taiwan again? Do the Bans have something with that place?’

Now I couldn’t help but resent the country where I had never even been before. In my point of view, I lost both my family and my peaceful holiday weekends to Taiwan.

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So that was what happened just a while ago.

Perching on the staircase to the house side by side, we just dwelled upon the clouds in the sky with a wistful and yearning glance.

Then I broke the ice, saying, “Where should we go now?”

“We should go home, “replied Yeo Ryung weakly. Dropping her gaze at the ground with gloomy eyes, she suddenly rubbed her stomach and said, “I’m hungry.”

So was I. Now I had come to think of it, the three of us had to see our families off from early in the morning, packed our bags out of the blue, and waited for Yeo Ryung’s auntie outside in the cold for a long time.

The place where we made the most fuss was in the supermarket, but anyway, we had consumed a lot of physical strength from earlier. Being such active and energetic high school students, we used up all our strengths, and therefore, were now left to starve severely. Yeo Dan oppa was the closest person here to a grownup; however, he was still a teenager.

Staring at the bags from the groceries, we soon opened a few packs of snacks.

I said, “What about the beverage?”

“Let’s just drink them.”

With that response, Yeo Ryung opened the bottles of Pocari Sweat and Fanta then threw the lids somewhere else.

We had our breakfast that way while munching the chips and drinking some juice and soda straight from the bottles. Looking at the ants crawling above the snacks in a line and taking some chips with them, I just giggled aimlessly.

“Enjoy,” I uttered.

“Yeah, we should eat together in the holidays, right?”

Watching Yeo Ryung replying blankly, I was sure that she was half out of her mind too.

‘I also expected a table full of traditional dishes, not something like this. I’ve never even imagined having breakfast with the ants outside in the streets.’

Once my stomach was somewhat full, I began to regain my composure. Squatting on the ground, I pulled my knees into my arms and said, “What should we do now?”

“Well… maybe we should take the car to return to Seoul.”

“How?”

“Wouldn’t there be any cabs?” asked Yeo Ryung.

We all looked at the road. It was empty without any cars. I thought, ‘Come to think of it, the cab drivers would, of course, also spend their weekends in their hometowns during the New Year’s holiday.’

We then began to pour out different ideas. Yeo Ryung suggested hitchhiking, whereas Yeo Dan oppa uttered it would be faster to call the police.

She asked, “What if the police scold us that we’ve called them for nothing?”

“Then should we perpetrate some violence here?”

Yeo Dan oppa’s response was worth more than just for us to hear.

While I wondered, ‘Is he also half out of his mind?’ with a bitter expression, Yeo Ryung replied with a sour look on her face too.

“How?”

“Hit me.”

“Are you sure? Can I hit you?”

“Hey, you two, chill.”

How could they cause violence in order to call the police as if they were doing something like summoning a demon? Stopping them from committing a crime, I glanced at the opposite side.

Since we were in a very rural area, the people were generous and open-minded enough to have low fences and window wall living rooms on their houses. So was the mansion on the opposite side.

They had two cars parked in front of their house; Land Rover and Audi. ‘Wow, they seem to be quite wealthy.’ With that thought in mind, I looked at their living room.

Though it wasn’t that crowded inside, the space showed indications of people being around. Maybe they were having a normal family reunion unlike us. ‘That’s so lucky,’ I thought. Suddenly, the door was flung open, and someone came outside.

The person was wearing a dark-green short-sleeved shirt on the top and purple fleece pajama pants with teddy bear prints on the bottom. As if he wasn’t even feeling cold, he stretched himself and began to turn his body here and there.

Yawning loudly, he soon met my eyes.

“Eh?” I blurted out in a small voice.

Yeo Ryung and Yeo Dan oppa turned their heads at the same time and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Switching their gazes to the direction where I was glancing at, the look on their faces also changed.

Even under the blurry winter sunlight, he had such a vividly blond hair like that of a sunflower. Slowly putting his hands down from stretching himself in all directions, his face soon blushed like fire.

I yelled at him, who was turning around in a hurry, “Ruda, hold on!”

“At least, make me change my clothes!”

‘Ah, okay,’ I said to myself while putting down my waving hand stealthily upon his desperate outcry. Ruda’s gruesome shriek came over to me again from a distance.

“Why… why does it always have to be in these kinds of situations!?”

After listening to his mournful cry, I recalled the outfits he was wearing when we bumped into each other. Most of them were, of course, just school uniform or something casual like a t-shirt and jeans. However, he was wearing a short dress at Hanwool Group’s anniversary party and looked like a Tarzan when we broke into the Reeds corporation building.

I laughed aimlessly. Within a few minutes, Ruda opened the door for us while wearing dark denim pants and a red sweater on top. He then greeted Yeo Ryung and Yeo Dan oppa awkwardly one after another.

“Hi, how are you…?”

“Good,” replied Yeo Dan oppa while having a grimmer face than Ruda.

Being hesitant for a second, I asked, “Can we go in?”

As soon as I flung that question, Ruda returned to his bright look then uttered to me, “Ah, of course, come in.”

He spoke so willingly that I thought he would usher us into the house, but Ruda left to somewhere else; instead, a blue haired-guy suddenly appeared in front of us.

Not only me but also Yeo Ryung, who was standing beside me, yelled in surprise, “Lucas?”

“Hey, long time no see. Is everything good? We had such an impressive first encounter, right?”

Eek! Looking at us frowning one after another, Lucas giggled and asked, ‘Aren’t you guys actually getting on your grandparents’ bad side?’

‘Still, he’s such an asshole,’ I thought while scowling at him. A fork then flew over and passed by his head all of a sudden, which made me startle. However, Lucas didn’t even get surprised. Turning his head back, he spoke in a nonchalant voice.

“Why, Jennie?”

“If you want to be my successor, you should first handle that nasty temper.”

“Wow, do you know how unfair it is when you point out my personality, Jenny?”

As soon as he dropped that remark, a few more knives and forks were thrown out to his head again. While I watched that sight absent-mindedly, Yeo Dan oppa and Yeo Ryung whispered beside me.

“Who is him?”

“Ah, he’s my friend’s big brother. We bumped into each other a few times before, so I know his face.”

Well, we couldn’t reveal the stories like both of us having sneaked into the club with makeups on or into a corporate building. Directing my eyes back onto Lucas, I dropped a question.

“Wow, how long has it been since we met? Maybe, already half a year? How was the jungle?”

Lucas then turned to look at me and replied with an overly pitiful expression.

“Don’t even get me started. It was Sahara after the jungle.”

‘Haha, you deserve it.’ With that thought in mind, I responded while showing a swiveling smile, “Wow, you’d be so glad to become the one and only successor.”

“You still have something against me, huh?” asked Lucas as if he felt ludicrous.

‘Do you think there’s a good feeling between us then?’ The moment I tried to toss it that way, I suddenly felt someone’s gaze and turned my head into that direction.